Preview: Hull City away

 

As is the way with the Championship, the games come around thick and fast and next up for Stale Solbakken's men is a trip to East Yorkshire to face a surprisingly in-form Hull City side. I think at the start of the season, if you were to pick your top 6 at this stage of the season, Hull would not be in there! A lot of credit has to go to Steve Bruce and his players for their season so far. Despite all this though, the stats show a mixed bag for Hull. Whilst tomorrow they will be chasing a 5th win in 6 games, they are actually yet to beat a top 9 side. What this points to is that Hull are where they are because they beat the teams they "expect" to beat (although they were rather strongly beaten by a then-bottom Peterborough side) but their failure to beat the top sides prevents them being higher in the table.

Stephen Hunt equalises for Hull in 2-2 draw

We do have a pretty poor record at the KC Stadium. In our 4 visits there, we've only won once - back in the Hoddle era. We've suffered two 2-0 defeats there, and scraped a 2-2 draw there three seasons back. And with recent poor away showings at Huddersfield and Burnley, I don't expect that to change. Solbakken says he will make changes but it is a change in mentality that is needed. Not in their playing style, but in their self-confidence. They perhaps need to gamble a little bit more and believe in themselves. This season we have a very miserly defence (indeed, on the road, only Brighton have conceded less goals than us). But we're not scoring enough either. We've scored only 18 goals all season, the joint-lowest in the top 10 (again it's Brighton we share that 'honour' with).

What the stats do point to is that, whilst there many not be many goals, whoever gets the first one will have a great say in the way the game goes. Wolves have scored first in 10 League games this season, and have gone on to win 6 of them. Hull on the other hand, have only scored first in 4 out of their 14 League matches this season, but have gone on to win all 4 of those games. With our rather tight away defence, an early goal for us could see us go on and pick up points.

Pennant: Out of sorts?

A bonus for us is that Hull have defensive injury worries. Liam Rosenior and Alex Bruce both face late fitness tests and with those being two positions where our key goal threats come up against (namely Sako and Ebanks-Blake), there is potential for us to exploit any weakness there. Solbakken has said he intends to make changes, and I wouldn't be surprised if we saw the introduction of Anthony Forde in place of Pennant, who hasn't looked anywhere near up to speed in his 4 appearances so far. Another chance could be in the middle where - similar to Ipswich away - we might see Tongo Doumbia rested and I fancy Edwards to come into the middle and make an impact. At a push, potentially Danny Batth might feature in place of Roger Johnson who has looked off the pace in the last 3 games, but I'm unsure as to whether Solbakken would want to split up the defence.

Either way, I think we're all looking for a much improved performance from Saturday, and I reckon we'll get it too. I have a feeling it'll be a tight, perhaps slightly cagey affair, but this time I'm backing us to come out on top.

Prediction: Hull City 1-2 Wolves

In Stale We Trust